The Natural Order
by strangecandy
Summary: Hound has a hard time accepting the darker side of nature.


The Natural Order   
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing.   
  
A.N.- OK, I know Ravage doesn't talk in the show, but the addition of him speaking is needed for the plot. Anyways, I like to think that he can, he just chooses not to. The strong, silent type. ^_^ I don't know if he can talk to animals either, but oh well, just another plot device.   
  
I've never tried writing a TF fanfic before, so this is my first attempt. It was given out as a challenge to TF fanfic writers by LadyJet2 over at The Padded Cell, and I cannot resist a challenge. It's not the best, but I give myself an "E" for effort. Yea effort! ^_^ Well, enough with my muttering, on to the story.   
  
I'm pretty sure this is going to be a one shot deal, but if anyone likes it, I may continue.  
  
There are probably some OOC moments in here, because I really don't have a good handle on the characters,so sorry.   
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A doe and her fawn were grazing, lazily, in a lush, green meadow.   
  
As they ate, a green robot stood by, observing their every action. He appreciated all things about this planet. It was so different from his home, Cybertron, but he looked upon it as a magnificent difference, unlike some of his compatriots.   
  
All things about the Earth fascinated Hound. It was always changing, never the same for more than an instant.   
  
Hound felt like he was… home.   
  
His favorite part about the Earth was the presence of so many life forms. A mech could pick up a handful of soil and look at it magnified several times over. Even at that level, it was teeming with life.   
  
Seeming to sense his gaze, the doe looked up and around, trying to figure out what did not belong, when she spotted him. Startled, she looked to her fawn, alerting it to their unwelcome visitor. With the flash of white tails, both bounded away, into the shadows of the evening woods.   
  
Hound sighed regretfully as he transformed, preparing to return to the Ark. It was a pleasant end to his day off, one of the few he had in a long time, and probably the last one he would be see in another long time.   
  
The Decepticons hadn't attacked for a few weeks. It was making everyone in the Ark nervous, extremely nervous.   
  
"I guess it's reasonable to be nervous," mused Hound as he drove off, "but that's not reason enough to keep from enjoying-"   
  
As he came around the bend, something leaped in front of him. Hound felt something rip painfully through his hood as he hit it.   
  
"Oh no, no," he whispered, backing up, hoping for the best.   
  
Hound turned around, trying to see what he had hit. He couldn't quite make it out in his headlights, so he attempted to transform.   
  
All that came of it was a painful groaning of gears, his circuits failing to comply with his command.   
  
"How did I get so badly damaged?"   
  
With that, he began to assess his condition.   
  
"I can still get back to the Ark, no problem, but what about…"   
  
He backed up, trying to bring the figure into the light. It was a doe, the one he had been watching earlier. There were no life signs coming from it. Hound turned away, sorrowfully, when something came to mind.   
  
"But where is her fawn?"   
  
He tried a thermal scan, but it had also been damaged.   
  
"I guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."   
  
He turned toward the side the doe had leaped out from. Hound flooded that side of the road with his headlights, and there he saw the fawn, shivering. It stared at him with its large eyes, seeming to ask what was going on.   
  
"What am I going to do now? I can't very well leave it out here, but I don't figure I am going to be able to lure it in me."   
  
As he sat deliberating, Hound heard the cry of a cat on the hunt. It came from a short distance, maybe an eighth of a mile from the north.   
  
"Now I definitely know I can't leave you out here," he said to the still-quivering fawn. "I just don't know how I can get you to come with me."   
  
Hound let out a frustrated sigh. He didn't know how, but he could feel the cat's presence, still approaching their current location.   
  
As he tried approaching it, the fawn scrambled frantically up the bank. It was almost to the top, when the earth under its feet gave. It slid back down, all the while attempting to reach the top again.   
  
Hound backed away, and the fawn calmed down a little. It still looked at him with frightened eyes, but it had given up its fruitless attempts to escape.   
  
The fawn seemed resigned to its fate.   
  
Though sure it wouldn't work, Hound tried coaxing the fawn to him, all the while aware of the hunter approaching them.   
  
After a half an hour of cajoling the deer, Hound finally seemed to be making progress. He had remained in the same place, calling to the fawn, with a door open.   
  
Naturally, it had become curious and wandered toward him.   
  
It seemed all would be fine, but the hunter was upon them.   
  
Hound had been preparing for this. He quickly turned around, shining the beams of his headlights toward the mountain lion. What he saw shocked him.   
  
There, in the beam of his headlights were two panthers.   
  
The first was a shiny, coal black. It's eyes reflected green back from the light. The second was…   
  
"You…" he trailed off.   
  
The light shone upon a metallic, black and silver panther. Its red eyes were glowing as it approached Hound and the fawn. The real panther, emboldened by its companion, started moving towards them as well.   
  
Hound tried frantically to get his weapons system online, but to no avail.   
  
"All right Ravage, get back. I'm warning you, I don't want to, but I will fire on you."   
  
"You know as well as I do that you are unable to any such thing."   
  
The quiet voice, seeming to come from no where, startled Hound, and made him stop. All that was there was the fawn, the panther, and Ravage…   
  
"The damage to your system was too great. I could kill you now, you know. Rip you into miniscule pieces, crush your spark."   
  
Hound stared at Ravage in shock. He had never spoken before.   
  
"But I won't, not now anyways. There is no sport in chasing wounded prey."   
  
He stopped and looked behind Hound, at the fawn.   
  
"However, the hunt is not always about sport. No matter what form it takes, it is always about survival. Life and death. Who will win, the hunter or the hunted?"   
  
Ravage continued circling them.   
  
Take my companion here for example. She hasn't eaten for a few days. Normally, this wouldn't be a large problem to her, but she has two cubs to feed. The fawn you are protecting would make a wonderful meal for her family."   
  
While Ravage talked, the panther had come closer and closer to the location of the fawn. Hound backed up, protectively.   
  
"You and I both know what would happen, were you not here."   
  
"Of course I know what would happen, that's why I'm not letting her near the fawn," exclaimed Hound.   
  
Ravage let out a sigh.   
  
"I thought you, of all of the transformers would understand why it needs to happen. I have watched you out here before. We seem to share the same appreciation for the way things are, the natural order, as humans put it."   
  
"I do-"   
  
Ravage jumped in front of Hound.   
  
"-But the fawn doesn't stand a chance against-"   
  
"That is the way things are. You claim to appreciate the natural order, so abide by its rules."   
  
Hound was confused. He knew he wanted to save the fawn, but Ravage was right. He looked to the fawn, then to the cat, and back again. The fawn was alone in this world now. It had no chance for survival, unless he took it in. The panther would probably find another meal, but would she find it in time?   
  
"I will attack you, if you do not let nature take its course," Ravage said quietly, interrupting Hound's inner struggle.   
  
Both knew Hound was in no condition to fight. The panther was going to get a meal either way. It was just up to Hound whether to fight or give in.   
  
He looked to the eyes of the fawn again. They were strangely serene, as if already knowing its fate.   
  
He looked to Ravage and backed away from the fawn.   
  
"Can you communicate with her, the panther, I mean?"   
  
"Yes," he stated quietly.   
  
"Could, could you ask her to make it quick?"   
  
"She would, even if I didn't ask her. She kills for survival, not for the sport."   
  
"I'm glad you did not disappoint me. I did not want to fight," Ravage added, almost as an afterthought.   
  
"It's not as though I had much of a choice," Hound replied, sounding almost bitter.   
  
Ravage was quiet for a moment.   
  
"I suggest you leave now, before she takes her meal."   
  
"No, I prefer to stay."   
  
"It is your decision."   
  
Both of the transformers backed off, allowing the panther access to the fawn.   
  
She leaped down from the rock she had been sitting on in one fluid motion. Hound had to appreciate the beauty and grace of the creature. She ran at the fawn, and killed it in one swift motion.   
  
"The natural order has been maintained," Ravage said quietly, then slipped off into the night.   
  
Hound watched the panther as it took its meal back into the forest.   
  
"Yes, the natural order."   
  
With that, Hound drove off, once again heading back to base. All sorts of thoughts ran through his head, tormenting him.   
  
"I could have saved it, the fawn, some how, so why didn't I? It goes against everything within me to have let something like that happen, even if that is the way things are supposed to be."   
  
Hound didn't even realize that he was already back at the Ark.   
  
As he drove in, he heard, shouts of joy and relief.   
  
"Ouch! What happened to you? I think maybe you should go to the repair bay."   
  
"Where were you, Hound, we thought the Decepticons got you!"   
  
"What would they all say if they knew what happened, what I had allowed to happen?" he thought.   
  
None of their comments really registered with him, but he needed to say something.   
  
"Yeah, you guys are right. I really need to go see Ratchet, then I'll take a long recharge."   
  
He then made his way down the corridor, and headed to the repair bay.   
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
In his recharge bed, Hound could not go offline. He kept remembering the fawn. Swiftly he got to his feet and began pacing around the room.   
  
In his mind, he knew he had done the right thing. He had no business interfering. This was how life on Earth had gone on for millions of year, and how it would continue to go, even after he was gone. His heart was a different story.   
  
As an Autobot, it was his duty to protect those who were unable to protect themselves. He had ignored a core part of his being, and now, he couldn't forget.   
  
The eyes of the fawn, so sad, so frightened, so resigned flashed before his optics continually.   
  
"The fawn accepted its fate, so why can't I?"   
  
He started pacing around the room again.   
  
"I need to get out of here."   
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Hound drove off into the night, not really paying any attention to where he was going. Before he knew it, he was back at the place where the fawn had died.   
  
He sat there for what seemed like hours, continually replaying that night in his mind. He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't pick up on the figure approaching him.   
  
"You know, that is the way things had to be," came Ravage's voice out of the darkness.   
  
"What do you want? Have you come to hunt me, to kill me?" asked Hound.   
  
"No, I just wanted to talk."   
  
Hound stared at him quizzically.   
  
"You still haven't come to terms with it, have you?"   
  
Hound looked away.   
  
"Your view of life on Earth is unrealistic. It is not possible for all the life forms to exist without meeting their physiological needs. To do that, it may be necessary for other creatures to die. I don't think you have ever faced the fact until yesterday."   
  
Hound thought about this for a moment. Ravage was right. He had never focused on the darker side of nature. All he had wanted to see was the beauty, the wonder, the miracles of life. It was like yin and yang. A bit of darkness, a bit of light.   
  
He felt slightly shamed. He had always seen Ravage as a Decepticon, destructive, with little appreciation for things such as this.   
  
"Umm, thank- Where did he go?"   
  
Hound looked around, but Ravage was nowhere to be found.   
  
He chuckled.   
  
"Therapy from a Decepticon."   
  
With that, he transformed and drove off, with more than one new idea to think about. 


End file.
